Uncharted's Next Generation Portable Entry Looks Staggering

It probably got slightly overlooked in the carnage of this morning's Next Generation Portable announcement, but Sony announced a new Uncharted game this morning

The game's set to be a fresh spin-off of the Uncharted franchise (not a port) and is in development at Sony Bend. (Told you so.) We've been lead to believe that Naughty Dog are overlooking the project. Seeing as Bend are Sony's premier handheld development studio, it makes sense that they've got dibs on the PlayStation's top franchise.

The demonstration of Uncharted for the NGP this morning was short but emphasised all the key components of Sony's new device. In the demo Nathan Drake is shown climbing using a back and forth motion across the touch-pad. It looks gimmicky but intuitive. The demonstration also shows Drake climbing and jumping using simple swipes of the NGP's delightful 5" touch screen.

Visually the game looks absolutely stunning. The environment demonstrated is a jungle not too dissimilar to the locales seen in the original Uncharted. We're still not sure where this will fit into the franchise's lore, but we're guessing it will be around the first Uncharted purely from an aesthetic hunch.

Uncharted is also set to take advantage of the NGP's gyroscopes. In the demonstration Drake is shown picking up a sniper rifle, before zooming in and aiming with the tilt controls. It looks perfectly natural, perhaps more so than the touch commands.

With Bend at the helm, we're certain Sony can deliver a relevant and justified entry into the Uncharted franchise. Now we've seen the technology in action, our attention is focused on the narrative and settings. Hopefully we get to see more soon.